After the sinking of Mediapro in 2020, and while the Covid-19 pandemic continues to cause damage, French football, on the brink of the abyss, is trying to rebuild its financial health. His idea: to seduce an investment fund, which in the short term would inject liquidity, and in the longer term would help him find new income.
The Professional Football League (LFP), assisted by two banks, Centerview and Lazard, launched a call for tenders to which around ten funds responded. In the end, she retained four. CVC, Oaktree, Silver Lake and Hellman & Friedman have said they are ready to invest 1.5 billion euros. In exchange, they would take between 12% and 13.5% of a new trading company, controlled by the LFP. These offers value French football between 11 and 12.5 billion euros.
In the coming days, the four funds will have access to the “Data room”, that is to say the confidential figures of the LFP (financial data, contracts, etc.). The LFP hopes to see them present their projects to the clubs in early March. With the choice of a partner in the process, and an operational start-up at the end of the season. By calling on an investment fund, the clubs therefore agree to forgo part of their income. But this is the price to pay to avoid bankruptcy at the end of the season, while the Ligue 1 clubs will have accumulated 1.86 billion euros in losses between 2019 and 2022, according to a source close to the LFP.
Club presidents hope that in exchange, the new partner will develop national audiovisual rights, but above all international and digital. “International rights represent 70 million in France, against 300 to 400 million euros in Germany and Italy, and 700 million in Spain “, indicates one of the protagonists in charge of the project. In the digital world, French football hopes to be inspired by Sorare, this start-up which markets kinds of digital Panini cards for players. “Sorare can have individual player rights, but not together. Only the League has them. So there is potential ”, continues the same source.
A road strewn with obstacles
The LFP is following in the footsteps of other European leagues, even if this kind of project is not easy to emerge. In Spain, four of the 42 clubs in La Liga, including Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, voted against the arrival of the CVC fund. In Italy, the Football League failed to convince the clubs, while a consortium of funds, including CVC and Advent, were ready to value Italian football 15 billion euros by injecting 1.5 billion euros. euros.
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